Syringe disintegrator

ABSTRACT

A housing is provided with a spring-loaded trap door in the top to receive used hypodermic syringes. A tube under the door conveys the syringe into a hammer mill where it is disintegrated into particles which are deposited in a disposable bag or service drawer. A liquid disinfectant reservoir supplies disinfectant to a pump which discharges it down the tube into the hammer mill to disinfect the particles, and it descends from the hammer mill into the bag or drawer, from which it returns to the reservoir through apertures in the bag or drawer.

United States Patent Dryden et al.

[ Dec. 16, 1975 1 SYRINGE DISINTEGRATOR 3,549,093 12/1970 Pallmann241/73 x 3,565,350 2/1971 Combs et al,.. 241/78 X [75] Invenmrs' Gale Yf Hams 3,750,966 8/1973 Anderson 241/100 x both of Indmnapohs, 3,755,8279/1973 Riedel et 31.... 210/167 x 73 AS 3,756,520 9/1973 Hughes 241/99S'gnee gli Corporatlon Indlanapohs 3,814,332 6/1974 Nakao 241/38 [22]Filed, Oct 4 1973 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS dK' 241 186R [21]Appl' No: 403,343 18,611 8/1913 Unite mgdom Primary Examiner-GranvilleY. Custer, Jr. [52] US. Cl. 241/69; 241/74; 241/99; AssistantExaminerCr'aig R. Feinberg 241/100; 241/188 R; 220/334 Attorney, Agent,or FirmWoodard, Weikart, [51] Int. C13... B02C 9/04; B02C 19/12; F24Hl/OO Emhardt & Naughton Field of Search 241/38, 41, 69, 73, 74, 241/79,79.2, 99, 100, 186 R, 186 A, 188 R,

188 A, 189 R, 189 A, 222, 245, 46 R; [571 ABSmACT 210/167, 197, 194;220/1 T, 348, 334; 232/7, A housing is provided with a spring-loadedtrap door 44, 47 in the top to receive used hypodermic syringes. A tubeunderthe door conveys the syringe into a hammer mill [56] ReferencesCited where it is disintegrated into particles which are de- UNITEDSTATES PATENTS posited in a disposable bag or service drawer. A liquiddisinfectant reservoir supplies disinfectant to a pump 1,161,089 111915W 2,558,255 6/1951 102 :8211 et a1 241 100; whlch dlscharges u down thetube mm the hammer 2,991,948 7/1961 Humme1en...............I: 241/73 mmdisinfect the particles and it descends from the 3,018,719 1/1962 Watson241 99 x hammer mill into the bag or drawer from which it 3,123,3123/1964 Palyi 241/186 R x turns to the reservoir through apertures in thebag of 3,151,814 8/1964 Morgan et al..... 241/186 R X drawer. 3,386,6688/1965 Shepherd 241/46 R 3,497,453 2/1970 Yurdin 210/167 x 8 Claims, 10Drawing figures I BI 2a 26 'l' lol- 59 I 7 54 e1 m 48 US. Patent Dec16,1975 SheetI OfS 3,926,379

US. Patent Dec. 16, 1975 Sheet 2 of5 3,926,379

58 Fig. 4 l

US. atent Dec. 16, 1975 Sheet4 of5 3,926,379

US. Patent Dec. 16,1975 Sheet5of5 3,926,379

SYRINGE DISINTEGRATOR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of theInvention This invention relates generally to waste disposing apparatus,and more particularly to means for safely disintegrating and disposingof comparatively solid items of small size, such as hypodermic syringes,for example.

2. Description of the Prior Art For normal reasons of sanitation, and inaddition, to avoid accessibility of used syringes to unauthorizedpersons, a need has arisen to assure the impossibility of reuse ofsyringes. While various types of disintegrators are known, includingball mills, hammer mills, and garbage disposers, to name a few, noneknown to me is suitable for disposal of syringes. The present inventionanswers the need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Described briefly, in a typical embodiment ofthe present invention, a motor driven mill has a downwardly inclinedfeed tube into a wall thereof, and particle collecting means positionedto receive particles resulting from milling material fed to the millthrough the tube. Means are provided to disinfect and deodorize themill, particle collecting means, and particles. The mill and feed tubeand relationship therebetween are such as to aid the acceptance in themill, of the material fed to it.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of atypical embodiment of the present invention, with the front door open.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view with a portion broken away to showinterior details.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view with most of the top broken away to showinterior details.

FIG. 4 is a front end view with the door removed.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary section through the inlet door in thetop.

FIG. 6 is a section through the hammer mill illustrating the positionsof the hammers as the mill is rotated, the section being taken on aplane perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

FIG. 6A is a top view of the dumping door, hinge, and handle, assembly.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the bottom of the hammer mill housingwith the cutting screen disposed thereon.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a table model.

FIG. 9 is a side elevational view of the table model with the side ofthe housing broken away to show interior details and a portion insection.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings indetail, the housing or cabinet includes a removable top 10, exteriorside walls 11 and 12, and a rear wall 13. It includes a front door 14hinged to wall 12 at 16. All of these walls and the door are preferablyconstructed of outer and inner face sheets with a sound proofing coresecured in place therebetween. This is shown for the rear wallparticularly in FIG. 2 where the sheets 13A and 13B are the outer andinner sheets, and the core is at 13C. The side and rear walls areaffixed in place by suitable framework, and four casters are providedunder the lower corners for convenience in moving.

A hammer mill is provided with an input shaft 18 having a pulley thereondriven by a belt 19 driven by a pulley on the shaft of the electricdrive motor 21. This hammer mill is driven in the clockwise directionwhen viewed from the front, as designated by arrow 22 in FIG. 6.

A feed tube 23 is secured to the rear wall of the hammer mill andprojects upwardly at an angle toward the top. A rubber coupling 24 issecured around the tube, and receives the tube 26 secured to the slopingfront wall 25 of a sort of hopper 28 below the inlet door 29 in the top.

As is best shown in FIG. 5, the hopper unit also has a rear wall 29' anda pair of side walls 31 and 32. The inclined front and rear walls areformed integral with, or soldered or welded to the sloping wall toprovide a unit, and this unit is secured to the face plate 33 exposed atthe top, and surrounding the opening in the top of the cabinet throughwhich the hopper projects downwardly.

Referring further to FIG. 5, it can be seen that the inlet door 29 has atab portion 36 turned down around the upper edge 37 of the rear wall 29'of the hopper. Below that it has the stop portion 38 received along andextending downwardly along a portion of the rear wall 29 to the pointwhere it projects perpendicular thereto at 39 and receives the hook 41at one end of the return spring 42. The other end of spring 42 has ahook 43 thereon secured to the tab 44 projecting down from the rear wall29' of the hopper. Thus the inlet door 29 is normally held in the closedposition flush with the face plate 33 by the spring 42 and located inthat position by means of the abutting engagement of the tab portion 38with the sloping wall 29. It can be moved downwardly in the direction ofarrow 46 by a slight manual effort to admit items to be disintegrated.

A container 47 (FIGS. 1, 2, and 4) rests on the floor 48 of the cabinet.A liquid disinfectant such as Tergisyl marketed by Lehn & Fink ProductsCorp. of Bloomfield, N..I., for example, is contained at 49 in thebottom of the container. A four legged pan 51 rests on the bottom of thecontainer and supports a plastic bag 52 immediately above the surface ofthe liquid in the container. The bag extends to the upper margin of thecontainer 47 and is then folded downwardly over the edge and down thesides as shown at 53. The bag is perforated in the bottom as at 54, forexample, and has a drawstring 55 near the top to close the top afterremoval from the container 47.

The solenoid-operated pump 56 (FIGS. 2 and 3) is mounted in the housing,this being a conventional pump supported by a set of four springs 57 asshown in FIG. 3 to eliminate transmission of vibrations to the housing.Oscillating pumps marketed by Gorman-Rupp Co. of Mansfield, Ohio aresuitable for this purpose. The pump has a flexible intake tube 58connected to its inlet, this flexible tube being connected to the tap ofthe rigid tube 59 extending through the wall of and ante the bottom ofthe container 47 and having an inlet 61 below the level of the liquid inthe container. The pump 56 also has a flexible discharge tube 62 (FIG.3) connected to the hammer mill feeding tube 23 and directed generallydownward therein.

Details of the hammer mill are best shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 wherein acircular housing is prvided at 63 and has a plurality of apertures 64 inthe Bottom thereof and a cutting member 66 welded to the inner surfacethereof diametrically opposite the apertures 64. This member 66 istypically a piece of a sheet of heavy gauge expanded metal mesh. Acomparatively large discharge opening 67 is provided immediatelyadjacent the apertures 64 in the clockwise direction therefrom as viewedin FIG. 6.

As shown in FIGS. 3, 4, and 6, a dumping door 68 is mounted to the shell63 on the outer side, by means of a hinge 69. This door projectsoutwardly from the cylindrical portion thereof to provide acounterbalancing portion 72. The weight of this counterbalancing portionnormally retains the cylindrical portion 68 in a snug relationship withthe cylindrical wall of the hammer mill shell 63. A dumping handle 73welded to portion 72 extends to the side of the axis 75 of hinge 69opposite that of the counterweight 72 so that, if the handle is pusheddownwardly, the dumping door 68 will move in the clockwise direction ofarrow 74 (FIG. 6) with respect to axis 75, and unload the contents ofthe hammer mill. Spring loading, instead of a counterweight, can be usedon the dumping door, if desired.

The hammer mill itself has a rotor including a plurality of spokes 76affixed to the shaft 18 and mounted at equal angles with respect to thenext adjacent spoke. Each of these has a hammer bar 77 pivotally mountedthereto at 78 and freely rotatable with respect to the pivot to theextent possible without interference with the next adjacent spoke orhammer. Normally, when the mill shaft 18 is rotating, these hammers willbe projecting radially outward with respect to the axis 18 as shown, andcan pivot counterclockwise thereto upon impact with any unusually heavyobject fed to the mill.

There is a discharge chute in the form of a sheet metal box withconvergent lower walls 79 and 81 (FIG. 4) and front and rear walls 82and 83 (FIG. 2), respectively, combining to form a discharge outlet 84above the container 47. The side walls 86 and 87 above the inclinedwalls are spaced laterally far enough from the bottom of the hammer millso as to receive particles leaving through the holes 64 even if leavingat somewhat of an angle with respect to the vertical. Also, wall 86 isdisposed to receive any large particles departing through the largeopening 67 when the dumping door 68 is open.

As is best shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the handle 73 for the large particledumping door projects in front of the front wall 82 of the dischargechute so that it is accessible when the front door 14 is open.

As is best shown in FIG. 1, an electric switch button 90 is disposed onthe face plate 33 on the top of the unit, and closure of this switchactivates both the motor 21 for the hammer mill drive, and the pump 56.When these units are in operation, disinfecting material is circulatedfrom the container into the waste material inlet tube 23 and therebyinto the hammer mill 17 from which it drops through the apertures 64 andthe discharge chute below it into the bag 52. The liquid can leave thebag 52 and return to the reservoir through the apertures 54 in the bag.

Used hypodermic syringes or other material is deposited through the door29 by simply pushing the door downward with the material or with thehand. The material descends the tube 23 into the central or vortex areaof the hammer mill as best shown in FIG. 6 at 89.

The downward incline of the feed tube 24 with respect to the plane ofrotation of the hammer mill (FIG. 2) and with the entrance of the tubeinto the rear end wall 98 of the hammer mill, to the right hand side(viewed from the front) where the rotor spokes 76 and hammers 77 aremoving downward, places the line of discharge from the tube (101 forexample in FIGS. 2 and 6) tangent the direction 102 of movement of apoint 103 on the rotor in the path of discharge from the tube into thehammer mill (FIG. 6). This facilitates entry of material into the hammermill. Thus it is ingested and digested readily and is not likely to bethrown back up through the tube. Even if it were, the orientation of thedoor is such that it would not be opened by any material thrown upwardlythrough the tube 23. As a matter of fact, the upward action does notoccur and the material is taken into the hammer mill and worked on bythe hammers and the cutting screens until the particle size is reducedsufficiently to pass through the apertures 64 and through the chutebelow it, into the bag. The ingesting action enables continuous feedingof material to the mill, without hazard. The size of the apertures 64 issmall enough to preclude the possibility of any deposits in the bagbeing reassembled into a syringe.

In the event that for some reason there is a need to rapidly empty thehammer mill, or to permit passage of a large object having minimal or noadaptability to reuse, the large door 68 can be opened by pushingdownward on the handle 73.

Referring now to the embodiment of FIGS. 8 and 9, which is a compact,economy model, the drive motor is shown at 21 directly in line with thehammer mill 17. Also, a drawer 91 is provided under the hammer mill andhas a partition 92 therein with apertures therein at 93. Disinfectingliquid is contained in both the front portion 94 and rear portion 96 ofthe drawer. Particles from the hammer mill are deposited in the frontportion, and excluded from the rear portion by the apertured partition92. The drawer may be removed by pulling it out by means of the handle97. The partition enables the emptying of the liquid first and then thesolid materials from the drawer.

We claim:

1. Disintegrator apparatus comprising:

a mill for milling objects fed thereto into particles and having aplurality of openings in the bottom thereof;

a motor driving the mill;

a feeding tube associated with the mill for conveying syringes and thelike to the mill;

particle collecting means associated with said mill and positioned toreceive from the mill, the particles derived from milling the items fedto the mill through said tube, and

fluid storage means communicating with said collecting means for contactof said particles therein with a fluid to disinfect said particles,

said collecting means including a drawer having a portion open at thetop and disposed below said mill directly under said openings in thebottom thereof and collecting particles which have fallen through saidopenings in the bottom of said mill and are received through the opentop portion of said drawer from said mill; and wherein:

said storage means include a liquid container connected to said drawerand containing liquid communicating with particles in the interior ofthe drawer through apertures in a wall of said container,

said mill has a horizontal input shaft; and

said motor is behind the mill and drives said input shaft.

2. Disintegrator apparatus comprising:

a mill for milling objects fed thereto into particles and having aplurality of openings in the bottom thereof;

a motor driving the mill;

a feeding tube associated with the mill for conveying syringes and thelike to the mill;

particle collecting means associated with said mill and positioned toreceive from the mill, the particles derived from milling the items fedto the mill through said tube, and

fluid storage means communicating with said collecting means for contactof said particles therein with a fiuid to disinfect said particles,

said storage means including a container having a liquid therein; and

said collecting means including a bag disposed in said container andopen at the top of said container directly under and in line with saidopenings in the bottom of said mill, said bag having a perforate bottompermitting drainage of liquid from particles in said bag into saidcontainer,

a pump for liquid, said pump having intake means having an inlet in saidliquid in the container, and said pump having discharge means openinginto said tube for directing liquid down said tube, into the mill, formoving through the mill into said bag and therefrom into said container;and wherein:

said mill includes a shell and a rotating central shaft having a rotorthereon and a wall having said shaft extending therethrough,

said mill having inlet in said wall communicating with said feedingtube, said inlet being located between the shell and the shaft.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein:

said feeding tube is inclined at an angle with respect to a planeperpendicular to the rotational axis of the shaft and the direction ofdischarge from the tube into the mill is such that a line in saiddirection is tangent the path of movement of a point on the rotatingrotor in the line of discharge.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein:

said feeding tube is inclined with respect to a plane perpendicular tothe rotational axis of the shaft;

and the direction of rotation of the rotor is such that points on therotor adjacent the mill inlet are moving downward in a direction aidingentry of items from the feeding tube into the mill.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 and further comprising:

a cutting member secured to and extending along a portion of theinterior of the shell above the shaft,

said shell having a plurality of particle discharge apertures throughthe wall thereof below said shaft.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein:

said cutting member is a portion of an expanded metal screen.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein:

said inlet is between said cutting member and said apertures.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:

said shell has a large particle dumping opening therein following saidapertures in the direction of movement of particles in said shell;

and a counterweighted dumping door is pivotally mounted to said shelland normally closes said dumping opening.

1. Disintegrator apparatus comprising: a mill for milling objects fedthereto into particles and having a plurality of openings in the bottomthereof; a motor driving the mill; a feeding tube associated with themill for conveying syringes and the like to the mill; particlecollecting means associated with said mill and positioned to receivefrom the mill, the particles derived from milling the items fed to themill through said tube, and fluid storage means communicating with saidcollecting means for contact of said particles therein with a fluid todisinfect said particles, said collecting means including a drawerhaving a portion open at the top and disposed below said mill directlyunder said openings in the bottom thereof and collecting particles whichhave fallen through said openings in the bottom of said mill and arereceived through the open top portion of said drawer from said mill; andwherein: said storage means include a liquid container connected to saiddrawer and containing liquid communicating with particles in theinterior of the drawer through apertures in a wall of said container,said mill has a horizontal input shaft; and said motor is behind themill and drives said input shaft.
 2. Disintegrator apparatus comprising:a mill for milling objects fed thereto into particles and having aplurality of openings in the bottom thereof; a motor driving the mill; afeeding tube associated with the mill for conveying syringes and thelike to the mill; particle collecting means associated with said milland positioned to receive from the mill, the particles derived frommilling the items fed to the mill through said tube, and fluid storagemeans communicating with said collecting means for contact of saidparticles therein with a fluid to disinfect said particles, said storagemeans including a container having a liquid therein; and said collectingmeans including a bag disposed in said container and open at the top ofsaid container directly under and in line with said openings in thebottom of said mill, said bag having a perforate bottom perMittingdrainage of liquid from particles in said bag into said container, apump for liquid, said pump having intake means having an inlet in saidliquid in the container, and said pump having discharge means openinginto said tube for directing liquid down said tube, into the mill, formoving through the mill into said bag and therefrom into said container;and wherein: said mill includes a shell and a rotating central shafthaving a rotor thereon and a wall having said shaft extendingtherethrough, said mill having inlet in said wall communicating withsaid feeding tube, said inlet being located between the shell and theshaft.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein: said feeding tube isinclined at an angle with respect to a plane perpendicular to therotational axis of the shaft and the direction of discharge from thetube into the mill is such that a line in said direction is tangent thepath of movement of a point on the rotating rotor in the line ofdischarge.
 4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein: said feeding tube isinclined with respect to a plane perpendicular to the rotational axis ofthe shaft; and the direction of rotation of the rotor is such thatpoints on the rotor adjacent the mill inlet are moving downward in adirection aiding entry of items from the feeding tube into the mill. 5.The apparatus of claim 2 and further comprising: a cutting membersecured to and extending along a portion of the interior of the shellabove the shaft, said shell having a plurality of particle dischargeapertures through the wall thereof below said shaft.
 6. The apparatus ofclaim 5 wherein: said cutting member is a portion of an expanded metalscreen.
 7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein: said inlet is between saidcutting member and said apertures.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:said shell has a large particle dumping opening therein following saidapertures in the direction of movement of particles in said shell; and acounterweighted dumping door is pivotally mounted to said shell andnormally closes said dumping opening.